BP forced to admit leak is bigger

Success collecting oil with a milelong suction tube shows that the spill may be far worse than thought.

By Julie Cart and Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

May 21, 2010

BP's success at drawing oil from a leaking pipe has proved that official estimates of the size of the Gulf of Mexico spill have been too low.

The company effectively admitted as much Thursday when it said that a tube inserted into the broken pipe connected to its blown-out well is collecting as much as 5,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of gas a day, even as a live video feed shows large volumes continuing to billow into gulf waters.

"There's still oil leaking there. We're not saying otherwise," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday.

After the company released a video of the gushing leak last week, independent scientists estimated the amount of oil spewing into the gulf could be 14 times as great as the 5,000-barrel-a-day figure officials have used for weeks to describe the month-old spill.

"From the beginning, we've been working with the [ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and the Coast Guard, and they are the source, using visual observations, of the size of the leak," Proegler said. "We have asserted that there's no way of accurately measuring from the end of the flow pipe. Others are taking issue with that, and that's fine."

NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said Thursday that 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, "was always understood to be a very rough estimate. That number was useful and the best estimate at the time." She added that the federal government established an interagency task force this week "to get to the bottom of the flow rate in a scientific fashion."

Since the company placed a 4-inch suction tube into the broken riser pipe Sunday, it has gradually drawn off greater amounts of oil and gas and sent it 5,000 feet to the oil-processing ship Enterprise. Engineers had to ramp up the process carefully, Proegler said, to avoid pulling in water that would mix with natural gas and promote the formation of pipe-clogging hydrates.

"We're not done," Proegler said. "We're going to continue to increase the rate on the insertion tube as high as we can."

The company plans to attempt a "top kill" this weekend or early next week that could plug the blown-out wellhead by injecting heavy fluids into it.

The oil giant has come under sharp criticism for not being more forthcoming about the results of testing and monitoring of the spill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on Thursday sent BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward a letter demanding that the company make available all data and information it has collected on the disaster, including reports of internal investigations.

Capitol Hill lawmakers investigating the disaster also posted a live BP video feed of the leak, dubbed Spillcam by one congressional aide, at http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam.

In an apparent bow to pressure from Congress and marine scientists, the EPA gave BP until Monday to begin using a less toxic oil dispersant to break up the growing slick.

Nearly 700,000 gallons of dispersant have been applied so far, the most ever used in a U.S.-based oil spill. Most of it has been released on the water's surface to break oil into droplets that will more quickly decompose with the help of oil-eating bacteria. But in a move that has worried some marine biologists, the EPA and the Coast Guard have allowed the unprecedented release of dispersants near the damaged wellhead, nearly a mile deep.

Carys L. Mitchelmore, a toxicologist who studies the effects of pollutants on aquatic life at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, called the prolonged use of dispersants in the gulf "one big experiment."

Using dispersants has the effect of exposing marine life to more oil, imperiling deep sea organisms, she said.

Federal officials have acknowledged that not much is known about the long-term environmental effects of dispersant, but they countered that the oil was far more toxic and posed a greater threat to marine life, wildlife, marshes and wetlands.

The EPA also posted on its website the results of BP testing that concluded that the two types of the dispersant Corexit in use so far were effective and posed no significant risk to aquatic life. The EPA did not explain the apparent contradiction of its order and the test results.

Some cleanup workers in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill developed health problems that were blamed on a chemical found in Corexit 9527, one of the dispersants the EPA ordered BP to stop applying. The chemical, 2-butoxyethanol, was removed from the other version used in the BP spill, Corexit 9500.

BP said it was complying with the order and had been testing alternative products for some time.

Bruce Gebhardt is president of U.S. Polychemical Corp., which manufactures Dispersit, a water-based product that proved more effective and less toxic in EPA testing than Corexit. He said his company was contacted by BP two weeks ago and provided samples.

By Thursday, an overwhelmed Gebhardt said his office based in New York state had been flooded with calls, including from BP. "They wanted to know how much we could make and how fast we could get it there," he said, adding that BP had not decided which dispersant it was switching to.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

julie.cart@latimes.com

Times staff writers Margot Roosevelt in Los Angeles and Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this report.

Attack the Root!: No to SB 1070, No to Border Militarization, No to NAFTA-101

We just wanted to share a flyer put together by our good comrade Chaparral Respects No Borders, it sums up not just SB1070, but the overall threat that this bill represents. These threats are not new, but now bring to surface the global context of these threats: neo-liberalism. Border security is needed to ensure neo-liberal projects (NAFTA!), and really should be read for what it is: border "regulation/militarization" of indigenous land to ensure capital exportation of people and resources .

As you have seen, and will continue to see, politicians from both parties and reformist immigration activist organizations, push for "Immigration" Reform" which, directly or indirectly, calls for border "militarization". . As cited in an earlier piece, the "political" solution will bring forced removal and relocation of the many indigenous tribes that span "their" borders by means of a reinforced physical barrier. Regardless of the politics, pseudo-calls for movement unity and Pan-American Indigenous "Perspective" (the use of indigenous themes/imagines/icons of liberation, while ignoring the indigenous of the land they organize on), it must be clear that the immigration struggle is also an indigenous struggle.

In order for the state to pass immigration reform, it has called for the "securing" of the borders first, in order to manage the flow of migration. This securing includes and is not limited to a physical wall to be made on indigenous land (Tohono O'odham/Lipan Apache to name a few). The state's power to waive pre-existing laws ( such as NEPA, NAGPRA) in the name of security, directly attacks indigenous autonomy/sovereignty. We understand that our voice, the O'odham voice, is greatly undermined by the mainstream media, state/national politicians and sadly, even self proclaimed immigrant/human rights activists. Regardless of their politics, our voice will stay strong in the face of 21st Century marginalization/colonization.

Our people have survived and kept our him'dag (O'odham way of life) strong through three waves of colonial settlers (Spain, Mexico and United States). OSABC feels, in order to move forward, and attack the State's new wave of colonization, we must understand "where we are at". The very land we all walk on. This has, is and always will be O'odham jewed. If others cannot acknowledge the indigenous people of the land, and call for policies that attack them (O'odham! Yaqui!), such as Berlin Wall-like barrier, in the name of "reform/security", then we will witness the cycles of capitalist imperialism continue long into the 21st Century!

ATTACK THE ROOT, NOT EACH OTHER!

IN SOLIDARITY!

Oaxaca: Two dead and three missing after paramilitaries attack peaceful caravan

Two people are dead and three are still missing after a peaceful solidarity caravan was attacked by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The caravan "came under fire" on Tuesday (April 27) "as it passed through La Sabana, a town controlled by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization that is allied with the ruling Institutional Revolution Party (PRI)," reports the freelance journalist Kristin Bricker.

"One young woman managed to make it to a hospital where she is being treated." In her initial report, the young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, said at least 15 people were wounded.

The caravan was accompanied by about 40 human rights defenders, international observers and two journalists.

The number of injured are still unclear, however, it has been confirmed that CACTUS member Beatriz Alberta Carino Trujillo and an international observer from Finland, Jyri Antero Jaakkola, were shot dead in the attack. The young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, was shot in the back. Three people are also missing, and it is feared that they have been captured by the paramilitaries.

At the time of the attack, the caravan was en route to the autonomous Triqui municipality of San Juan Copala witha fresh supply of food, water, clothing and other basic necessities.

The town has been closed off by a paramilitary blockade for the past 6 months, making it virtually impossible to leave or bring in supplies.

Kristin Bricker explains, "San Juan Copala declared itself autonomous following the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca, and the autonomous government declared itself adherent to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign. The autonomous municipality has been the target of paramilitary violence ever since. Countless San Juan Copala residents have fallen victim to paramilitary violence. The most prominent case was the execution of two young Triqui radio journalists. This past November, paramilitaries opened fire on San Juan Copala's town hall during a caravan that was traveling to San Juan Copala from San Salvador Atenco. UBISORT had put up a highway blockade to stop the caravan, which was comprised of People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) members. While the FPDT was trapped outside the town, paramilitaries attacked the town hall. They shot four children, killing one of them." The paramilitary group ultimately took control of the Municipality's offices.

They reamined there until just 7 weeks ago, when the "Independent Movement for Triqui Unification" (MULT-I) peacefully forced them out. It was, however, a sombre victory since the paramilitary blockade has continued to tie down the Municipality.

Since the initital attack in November, at least 17 indigenous Triquis have been murdered.

Concerning the recent attack, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL) have released a statement demanding "the government of the killer Ulises Ruiz put an end to all paramilitary attacks in the Triqui Region, and to the financing, provision of arms, and impunity enjoyed by these paramilitary groups in our state." They are also demanding "the immediate presentation of our disappeared comrades."

They are also calling on "the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the international community and different social organizations, collectives and groups to make a visible show of solidarity and support, demanding the live presentation of our disappeared brothers and punishment of the responsible people. We also ask that you demand an end to the conditions of violence imposed on the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala.

As a starting point, people should direct their attention to the Governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz Tel. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13005 Fax. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13018 Email. gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Gulf Oil Spill Far Worse Than Officials, BP Admit, Says Independent Analyst

Close to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico following the destruction of an offshore oil platform last week, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Operator BP originally argued that the amount was far less (only 1,000 barrels or so), but today it concurred with the government's numbers.

Too bad they're both wrong, according to a group of independent analysts who are watching the spill via satellite and aerial data from their offices in West Virginia. They say the spill is far worse than either the company or the government has acknowledged so far.

Five thousand barrels a day is "a bare-bones limit," says John Amos, the president and founder of the nonprofit firm SkyTruth, which specializes in gathering and analyzing satellite and aerial data to promote environmental conservation.

Amos estimates that the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf is more like 40,000 barrels a day -- eight times the Coast Guard estimate, and 40 times what BP originally claimed. That would add up to about 12 million gallons of oil so far, making this spill worse than the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound -- one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. (NRDC is calling for a temporary halt to plans for new offshore drilling in light of the Gulf explosion. See update below on President Obama's response.)

Amos previously worked as a consulting geologist, "using satellite imagery as a global geologic tool," in his words, to locate natural resources for major oil and mining corporations. Now he assists advocacy organizations, government agencies, and academic researchers with data collection and analysis.

SkyTruth receives a bit of foundation funding, and it also partners with green groups in the United States and overseas on specific projects. Last year, when a Montara oil rig exploded in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of western Australia, SkyTruth tracked and documented the spill for a coalition of groups advocating for protected marine reserves in the area. That spill lasted for 10 weeks.

"On this Gulf spill, we're not officially partnered with anyone," Amos says. "We are doing what we think is the best thing we can do right now, hoping at some point groups will work with us to make it sustainable over the long haul." He's assisted by a technical volunteer and consultations with professional cohorts.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, exploded and caught fire on April 20 and sank a week ago today. There were 126 people on board; 11 are missing and likely dead. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency today because of the spreading oil slick -- which is expected to reach the state's coast late tonight -- and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called it a spill of "national significance."

SkyTruth has access to much of (but not all) the same data that the government and BP are using. It's publicly available from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the agency's Aqua satellite, as well as other sources, including aerial flights.

Based on a map released from a flyover on Wednesday and compared to "the last good satellite image that we got, from the afternoon of April 27," Amos believes that the slick covers about 4,400 square miles. Official estimates to date have put the slick at about 2,200 square miles.

So how did Amos calculate the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf?

"We saw a published statement by a BP executive that about 3 percent of the slick was about 100 microns thick, and that the rest was about one or two molecules thick," he says. "We took him at his word on the microns, but not on the rest," because to see an observable sheen of oil at sea, the petro-goo needs to be at least 1 micron thick, explains Amos.

"A molecule's thickness is measured in billionths of a meter. For a micron, we're talking millionths of a meter," he says. And over thousands of square miles of ocean surface, even millionths of a meter add up.

Using BP's estimate that 3 percent of the slick's area is 100 microns thick, and assessing its size at around 4,400 square miles, Amos calculated that this part of the spill contains about 9 million gallons of oil.

Allowing for the remaining 97 percent of the slick to be 1 micron thick (the minimum necessary for that visible shimmer), Amos estimates another 3 million gallons of oil.

Total: 12 million gallons of slick, give or take a couple hundred thousand, and more oil pouring into the ocean every day.

To make even a rough estimate, Amos used BP's higher-end figure of 100 microns. But the oil is actually much thicker in some parts of the visible spill, he says. Aerial imagery is showing "thick ropy strands of oil, oil that's much thicker than 1 micron," according to Amos. "That's floating froth of oil mixed with water and probably bacteria ... the sloppy thick end of an oil spill where it could be anywhere from a millimeter thick to centimeters thick."

Amos says he doesn't question the Coast Guard's sincerity -- just its data analysis. "They are swamped by the magnitude of this spill and their effort to control it, and stop it from doing worse damage," he says. "I don't blame them for not questioning the numbers they've been provided by others, or spending their precious resources just trying to come up with better number."

From the Coast Guard's perspective, Amos say, "It's just a heck of a lot of oil."

The Coast Guard has not responded to requests for comment.

As for how BP arrived at its initial, much lower estimate of 1,000 barrels per day, Amos says: "I hope it was based on some real thoughtful analysis. But I haven't seen any justification."

UPDATE 4/30/2010: In response to calls from NRDC and others for a halt to drilling expansion in light of the latest disaster, the White House said today that no new offshore oil drilling will take place until a full investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion is completed.

Image: Gulf oil spill, captured on April 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/MODIS Rapid Response Team

Leonard Peltier to the climate conference attendees (Bolivia)

Monday, April 19, 2010 lpdoc.blogspot.com

My warmest regards to our host, Bolivian President
Evo Morales.

To Presidents Rafael Correa, Daniel Ortega, Hugo
Chavez, and other esteemed Heads of State;
national representatives; and all concerned
citizens in attendance at the People’s Conference
on Climate Change: I send warm greetings and thank
you for your participation.

Today, environmentalists are often portrayed as
marginal intellects and labeled “lunatic fringe,”
rather than progressive thinkers with the ability
to foresee the true cost of destructive corporate
practices. I applaud your intent to ignore your
detractors and admire your efforts to refine the
proposals from the Copenhagen meetings ­in
particular, towards the creation of a world
tribunal for climate issues and a global
referendum on environmental choices. I know the
calculus of this work is difficult to solve.
Listening to the voices of so many to create a
common solution is a unique and difficult
challenge, but also a special opportunity.
I offer prayers for your success.

My name is Leonard Peltier. I am a citizen of the
Dakota/Lakota and Anishinabe Nations of North
America. Like many of you, I am a tribal person.
As Aboriginal peoples, we have always struggled
to live in harmony with the Earth. We have
maintained our vigilance and bear witness to a
blatant disregard for our planet and sustainable
life ways. We’ve seen that the pursuit of
maximized profits through globalization,
privatization, and corporate personhood has
become a plague that destroys life. We know that
it is not only the land that suffers as a result
of these practices. The people most closely
associated with the Earth suffer first and most.

The enormous pressures of corporate profits have
intruded on our tribal lands, but also on our
ancient cultures ­even to the extent that many
Indigenous cultures have virtually disappeared.
Just as our relatives in the animal kingdom are
threatened, many more cultures are on the brink
of extinction.

In America, we are at ground zero of this war for
survival and most often have been left with no
mechanism to fight this globalization monster. On
those occasions when we are forced into a
defensive posture, we are disappeared, tortured,
killed, and imprisoned. I myself have served over
34 years in prison for resisting an invasion
intent on violating our treaties and stealing our
land for the precious resource of uranium. The
same desire for uranium has decimated and
poisoned the Diné Nation of Arizona and New
Mexico. The quest for land for dumping and hiding
the toxic waste from various nuclear processes
has caused a war to be waged on the Shoshone
people of Nevada, as well. These are just a few
examples of what “progress” has meant for our
peoples. As many can attest, the same struggle is
occurring throughout Central and South America.
While my defense of my tribal lands made me a
political prisoner, I know I’m not at all unique.
This struggle has created countless other
prisoners of conscience­ not to mention prisoners
of poor health and loss of life way, as well as
victims of guilt and rage.

To live as we were meant to live is our first
right. To live free of the fear of forced
removal, destroyed homelands, poisoned water, and
loss of habitat, food sources, and our overall
life way is our righteous demand. We, therefore,
continue our struggle to survive in the face of
those who deny climate change and refuse to curb
corporate powers.

It is time for all our voices to be heard.

It is time we all listen, too­ or else our
collective Mother will dramatically and forcefully
unstop our ears.

The Indigenous Peoples have been the keepers of
knowledge and wisdom­ long ago bringing forth
foods, medicines, and other products from which
the world population still benefits. The loss of
our lands and cultures, therefore, is a loss for
the entire human family. We are all citizens of
Earth and this planet is our only home. What
affects one, affects us all. We are all
interconnected and our fates are intertwined.

We can indefinitely survive here, but only if we
work together to adopt sustainable models for
living responsibly. We cannot continue to destroy
Creator’s work, or allow others to do so, in the
belief that there will be no consequences.

I pray for a new age­ a new understanding,
consciousness, and way of being­ a new path for all
the peoples of the world.

Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin!

(Thank you to all my relations. We are all related.)

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,



Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
USA